With Jessica Hardcastle - Nov 23, 2014

Sister Jessica Hardcastle served in Thailand and returned for a visit and found me in her last area! She is a nurse who works with my mom and she hand delivered Christmas presents from home. She is amazing! I want to be a missionary just like her!

P-DAY TRIP TO THE ANCIENT CITY AND TIMING - NOV 24, 2014

Hello!

AHH SO MUCH STUFF HAPPENS EVERYDAY! There is literally no possible way to tell you even half of it. AHH Like last week so much happed that I completely forgot to mention that our investigator Bin was baptized! 

Thanksgiving is this week! The Bruso's invited us to go over to their house for turkey dinner!!! I AM SO STOKED!!! Yayayay :) 

I am grateful for... My family. Who I will be with for all eternity. 

I am grateful for... My awesome companion, Sister Jackson.

I am grateful for... The Book of Mormon. 

I am grateful for... Patience.

I am grateful for... Rice. 

I am grateful for... Fruit stands.

I am grateful for... My Heavenly Father.

I am grateful for... Conference talks.

I am grateful for... Angels.

I am grateful for... My savior, Jesus Christ.

Monday: Went on a bike ride through the Ancient Cities today... NBD!! Whoa seriously that was amazing and it was so beautiful there. Everytime we would pass a big group of Thai's they'd yell "hello" @ us.. Because we are "falaangs" (white people they LOVE white people HA) and they laugh and giggle when we say hello back. :) I also had my first elephant encounter! It posed for me! it was so close to it I could have put my hand out a little in front of me and touched it's trunk! AH!

Tuesday: Timing is an incredible thing. We were out inviting the world... And for some reason we stopped to buy corn from this funny corn lady... And we sat there for a second after eating..... And then both at the same time said okay lets go!... So we cross a bridge... And take our usually path to a market. We pass a bus stop, when i see a girl- not knowing that @ the same time Sis. JAckson sees this same girl too.. I ask her if she wants to go to church.. her eyes light up and looks from me to Sis. J and says "Sisters?! Baptism right!?" Right then and there SHE set up an appointment to meet with us. Yeah. That happened. She is gold. Heavenly Father's timing... Is incredible.. If we hadn't taken a second to buy CORN! of all things.. We would have missed her. 

Wednesday: Happpppy Birthdaaaaay Annnny! :) So I am way blessed to have Sister Jackson as my companion. Seriously. I lover her and am going to be SO sad when she leaves me... in 3 weeks?? BUT because she is an STL we get to go on switch offs with other companionships.. So we both went to Bangna for the day where sister Morgan and Sister Croft were! I got to be comps with Sister Morgan again for half the day and then comps with Sister Croft for the other half! It was way awesome to see how other missionaries work.. And even more awesome to see how much I have learned..... And to see just how much Sister Jackson has taught me. I love my khuu!

Thursday: At the end of the day today.. Sister J and I were writing in our journals listening to my Ipod (which I am SO grateful for BTW... HUGE thank you to M&D for buying that bday present, HUGE thanks to Anny for loading it with music... And HUGE thank you to Kirstin who provided a good chunk of the music- PS I LOVE LOWER LIGHTS! I LOVE THEM!)-So were sitting there... when "Called to Serve" came one.. And it was being sung by a big group of Elders.. And I got chills.. :) Have I told you how much I love being a missionary? Missionary Work is hard work... But It is so good. Called. To. Serve.

Friday: Taught เกค (Gade) today! The cool girl from Tuesday. Yep. She is getting baptized. What on earth?? Thank you so much Heavenly Father! It is all because of Him. After the lesson we jumped in a taxi and spent the rest of the day on switch offs in Bangkapii! Oh so fun.. So after a few hours of inviting we went to Swensens (a LEGIT ice cream place) with Sister Alley (so SO cute- and is an Art History major!!!?? So cute. And from Washingtion) and with Sister Mamaea (OHHHH she is so cute. From Hawaii!).. Love being with the other missionaries.. It is so motivating! Ah. There is nothing we can't do! Everything and anything is possible through Christ! Moroni 7:33. Best Scripture Ever. Go look it up!

Saturday: Sister Lek invited us over for food... For a Tahi. Seafood. FEAST. That They went and caught... THAT morning... Actually it was Ky Lovell's Thai personality doppleganger that caught the feast. (every time I see that man i think of KY! ALSO There is a little boy here... His name is Fong... He is Lyncoln's Thai doppleganger... Every time I see him... My head kind of freaks out. I will take a pic one of these days and send... Seriously so crazy!). But yes the feast... Whoa... We had shrimp... I love shrimp... Squid..don't really love squid haha... Lobster... mmmm Made me think of crabbing with my washington family <3... Oysters... Prawns... And other mysterious ocean crawling creatures... Will send pics. Oh my word. Thailand is SO crazy.

Sunday: Timing Miracle. This story starts on Saturday... We hurried from inviting for an appointment at the church with an investigator. We get there and wait for a few minutes.. No investigator. We call... No answer. We wait for another few minutes just in case.. Nothing. We then decided to tidy up the church a little bit as there were some various pieces of trash here and there.. Two minutes after making this decision.. In walks a man.. Wondering about English.. We explain to him that we teach English only on Tuesday evenings.. He explains.. That he is only free on Sundays (mwahaha perfect!!). We invite him to come to church... And he says.. Hmm maybe I will come.. We both thought it was way cool that... We had decided to stay instead leave as a result of our dropped appointment... But little did we know that, that wasn't the end of the miracle!!! Sunday morning comes around.. We are welcoming people inside.. AND IN WALKS THE MAN! Not only did he bring himself but he also brought his sweet daughter! And they are both coming to church again next week! Had we not been at the church that day.. They would not have come to church that day.. Nor would they be coming to church next week. This all just blows me away! God is so good! And His timing is perfect. He is so good. This week i've learned and am still learning to trust in his timing... Timing not just when appointments are dropped or when plans fall through.. But also his timing in learning Thai. Timing in becoming a better teacher.. A better disciple.. A better missionary.  33 But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.

Randoms:

I ate a chicken foot this week. 

Sister Jackson sleep walks... And attacked me last night hahahaha.

Thailand finally hit......... If.. You.. Know... What.. I mean... Remember that one story Ryan told us about that stake president who's arm hair stands up? And he knows he has exactly 3 minutes to... ? Hahahahahahahaha ITS TRUE! AHAHAHAH

A WEEK OF TRYING - NOV. 16, 2014

 

Tried SO many things this week. SO. MANY. THINGS.

-Rod-Dii (spelling? Probably not right ha!) They sell these all over in street vendors.. I am not really even sure what they are... It's like a yummy Asian crepe? thing with egg,  banana and sweetn' condensed milk> They are OBSESSED with that here (sweetn'cond. milk- carnation brand stuff?). SO GOOD.

-Tried the spiceiest food i've ever had in my life. I wanted to slice my tongue off and bash my head over and over on the table! AHH. IT  WAS SO HOT. :( Oh my word it was so awful. To help fix it... A sweet member, Benny, gave me a Hall's cough drop.... They eat those things like candy here. Ew! Haha It helped though... Yeah wow... Stay away from the prick>> SPICY.

- Tried some WONDERFUL mushroom/ham/pineapple shiskabobs, Thai donuts >>thought of you Anny! They were SO yummy!!! I also had some strange ball things.. I can't even describe to what they look like really... Because I have no idea what it is them... I also can't describe how disgusting they look. BUT.... They are so good! Haha.. They look kind of like an octopus ball of jelly....Mmmm:)

-We eat fresh fruit every day! My favorite is the pineapple... Oh so good. This morning I had Malagaaw> Papaya. Seriously SO amazing! Heavenly Father knew I wouldn't do so well with all this spicy stuff.. So he sent fruit. :) The guava and asian pears are good too. All of it. Oh all of it. They have little smoothie stands everywhere. They are SO cheap and SO amazing. One of our favorite things to get is a banana smoothie! I like to put coconut in it too. Oh! Speaking of fruit.. Every Wednesday night is Book of Mormon night a the church- where they Elders read a BOM story and have an activity with it. So fun! A lot of our RC's (recent converts) and investigators come! So this past week we rad about Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life. And of his family eating of the fruit- at which point they fave everyone an asian pear!... Hahaaaa So Sister Jackson took a bite of hers.. And then looked down to see a WORM! No- HALF A WORM!! Ahhhhhhh! Welcome to Thailand. Every single day is an adventure.

-We went out as a district to an Italian restaurant this week! I had a bacon and egg pizza. :) Trying new things. :) Is was way fun and the pizza was so good. I ate an entire pizza. It was huge. It was worth it. I really do love the food here... So many way amazing fresh things.. But I won't lie.. eating American food.... Makes my stomach smile.... hahaha Especially PB and chocolate. #fatamericanatheart

- Also this week we had Dairy Queen! I have decided all ice cream here.. Is impostor ice cream... There is just something not right about any of it.. Hahaha In this land they are obsessed with Kit Kats.... They are everywhere. I feel like Kit Kats are like... The Reeses of Thailand. 

Learned and Learning:

We go out inviting 100's of people to go to church everyday. We call the 20 or so #'s that we are able to find on the street over the weeks time and invite and remind them of church again. We keeping inviting even if no one says yes. Why? Because we received a call from a prophet of God to five out time to be obedient.

I would be lying if I were to say that inviting is my top favorite missionary thing to do.. Truly some days it is not so fun or easy. It's not always easy to enthusiastically invite someone to church and then enthusiastically respond to the same response you've heard a ba-jillion times. "I don't have tiiiiiime!" (in my mind I say in a dragon voice: YES YOU DOOOO. RAWWWR) hahah Argh! 

But I will tell you this. We are not just asking people to come to church. Like I said in my last email.. We are planting seeds. Planting seeds in a big piece of seemingly endless and empty land... The seeds are starting to sprout though.. And it is exciting to see.. They are sprouting because past missionaries did their job.. They were were faithfully obedient... 

D&C 130:20-21 "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in Heaven before the foundation of this world, upon which ALL BLESSINGS are predicated. And when we obtain any blessing form God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."

...Everyday we have the opportunity to see the blessing that comes from being obedient.. Whether we are serving a mission or not. The other day while inviting we came across a seed that had sprouted... It was like a big beautiful lone sunflower that you usually see in dry field of dead weeds.. Or off the side of the free way. Just a little pop of happy among of all the nothingness around it... So the story is.. I saw this woman standing across the way ahead of me.. & I decided to go and invite her. She told me that she had already been to our church! And learned some things! WHOA! Of the 100's of people around us I asked HER. She said that a little while ago.. A Sister STEELE (<3<3<3) gave her one of these cards (pass a long cards).. And that yes, she would be interested in learning more.. Even though that may sound super simple and insignificant.. It was a miracle. It was a blessing for being obedient. For doing what might not have sounded so fun at the moment. Wow. I am thankful to sis. Steele for being obedient and inviting that day she did. I am thankful that Sister Jackson and I were obedient and went inviting as well. That sunflower was a beautiful reminder of the promise that has been "irrevocably decreed"... That God will and does bless us... Each time we are obedient.

 Regardless of what others use their agency to do, as long as I am using my agency to choose the right.. to be obedient.. That is all that matters. It reminds me of a story I recently read in the BOM.. Alma, was called to go preach to the Lamanites.. And was really down trodden and depressed.. Because they were all rejecting him.. Ann angel came to him and said: (Alma 8:15) "Blessed art thou Alma; therefore lift up they head & rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou has been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou received thy first message from Him.." He couldn't force those people to listen or to go to church.. That is all in God's hands.. He did what he could do. He did all he could by making sure he did as we was asked.

I have a testimony of being obedient and of inviting. I really do enjoy going out and talking to people... I love talking to people who THINK I can speak Thai... :) When i totally can't. :) But they think I can and it is awesome. The Thai is coming though, a sliver @ a time. And I am grateful! 

Sunday: Mom. I GOT YOUR HUG! Jessica Hardcastle found me!!! Wow! I was so happy to see her! I recognized her too because there is a picture of her in our house!!! Ah... It was so wonderful to see her.. She was an answer to a prayer that I didn't know I needed. She gave me advice that I know was divine. I feel like she was a very similar missionary as to how I am now. Ah it was so awesome to talk with her! I didn't get to talk with her for very long but just from talking with for a little bit I felt like she became such a fast friend! Please tell her thank you thank you thank you! She has a few things to give and show you! I hope you work on Wednesday with her! :) 

Shout outs: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANNNNNNNNOOOO BONANO!!!! YOU ARE 15 YOU ARE 15 YOU ARE 15 YOU ARE 15!! & HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO FROGGY GRANDMA! Love you both! <3 

Anything else to update? 

I love Sister Jackson SO much. 

We made Massaman last night... AND IT WAS SO GOOD.

Those bus's with the wooden floors? I love them... Best air flow... All windows are open :)

Things I saw this week that were... gross hahaha:

Three or Four dead dogs.... I won't go into details..

A girl on the side of the road in shock with a broken arm...

Every day is an adventure.

I love Saphan Sung! 

I love being a missionary.

God is real. 

Love,

Sister Coates

PS. Sister Jackson & I fasted this week with the fam! Thanks for keeping me in the loop Britt. Love you all

PPS. I taught Sis. Jacks the Trolololo song... We sing it everyday.

OUR HOUSE

Our Kitchen

Our Desks

Planting, Planting, Planting

November  9, 2014


Hello from Samphaan Suung!

Okay:

Ear Infection: Feeling 100% better- minus that fact that my ear is still way plugged up.. Way difficult to hear things. I literally cannot understand anything the khonThai say and on top of that I can't hear anything.. SO it's awesome. :)

Sister Jackson: I feel like last time I didn't say too much about my companion. BUT I need to because she is SO awesome. OH she is so awesome! We have SO much fun together. She is such a great teacher. I look up to her so much. She has been here for 17 months... So this is her last transfer! I am her last companion... :( I am kind of dreading transfers. :( But truly she is so so awesome. Love her! I can't remember if I already said this.. But she is from Salt Lake and went to Skyline. Yesterday was her 22nd birthday! We celebrated by eating way good fried eggs Thai style and toast.. With Nutella. :) We got to go to church with the most wonderful members! President and Sister Senior came! Wow.. They brought such a special spirit. President Senior bore his testimony.. It was so simple but SO powerful. I think that every one in that room could feel it. One of our investigators who has been learning for about a year came up to us after church and said.. "I talked to God... He wants me to be baptized this week." Whoa. Is this real life? And then another new investigator that we had given a pass along card too while inviting came! And we more appoinments schedule with him this week!! miracles. miracles. lesmiserbles.  miracles.

Thailand Bangkok Mission (TBM- The Best Mission)

Missionary Life: Everyday it is a rule/requirement to do 2 hours of inviting. Which is asking everyone EVERY PERSON we see if they want to go to church.. Or if they want to be baptized. And hand out pass a long cards, get people's #'s.. We will go to these HUGE HUGE markets where everyone is selling everything... Meats, shoes, clothes, waffles, weird looking treats, junk, more meat, stinky fish, rice, slimy things that I haven't been able to identify, etc.. etc.. And the markets are just PACKED with people. It is crazy! But that is what we do. We ask. We talk to.. EVERYONE.  Typical answers are (say in a very Asian accent :D) "my wawng!" (not free) "my mii waylaa" (i don't have time) "ben is-a-lam" (i'm islam) "ben mus-a-lam" (haha I'm muslim) etc. FUN. Even though majority of people so "No"... We are planting. Planting,  planting, planting. Planting seeds for these people.. Who will all one day hear the gospel.. Who will some day come to church. So even on the days that we don't get any numbers or don't physically see the success.. Heavenly father needs to be exactly obedient.. He needs us to plant these seeds! And from being exactly obedient He will bring us other blessings. We will find other investigators.. Or that less active we have been trying to reach out to will come to church or call us!!.. Just do what you are supposed to.. Even if it is not fun or if you don't know why. You'll be blessed. Just wait and see.

Training: Sister Jackson is an Sister Training Leader. Because of this I got to go all over Bangkok this week with her and the Zone Leaders to training meetings! There was a big meeting with President Senior where all the ZL's and STL's met.. And then for the next 2 days we went to the other districts and passed along President Senior's message! This month is "Bovember the 2nd" The "B" is for baptism.. We have a goal this month to get 2 baptisms per every companionship in the mission. So we can reach our year long goal of 2000 baptisms for the year. WHICH IS HUGE. So in trying to get us prepared for this huge goal... President Senior's message was on Obedience. I got to listen to the trainings 5 separate times.. I think HF really needed me to hear it that many times so that it would stick. My perspectives on obedience have definitely been broadened. There is one thing in my mission life that I for sure have 100% control over in terms of exact obedience.. And that is my schedule. Elder Holland said something along the lines of "If you can show me how your morning studies when.. I can tell you how the rest of your day will go, week, month, mission and life.." No matter what other people use there agency for- what matters is that I used mine exactly how I was asked to. This can be applied to everything. Just do what you are supposed to! Deny yourself of that little bit of extra sleep.. Deny yourself of lingering on one subject. 

Door Knob Miracle: This week... I shut our bedroom door. Not knowing before hand that the door was locked with our phone inside.... At the end of the day we had to have the Elders come break the knob off with a hammer... BUT the miracle of the story... (long story short.. so many cool details about this).. Had we not locked that in there.. We wouldn't have had to go to the Tesco (grocery store) to ask where we could find a copy store.. We wouldn't have been helped by this sweet sweet old man... Who after helping us find the copy store and riding off on his bike- we chased down the street and invited him to church! And he said yes he would come! Not only would he but he said he really wanted to! So.. Cool. Thank you Heavenly Father.

Our apartment.... We shower with lizards. 

Thai Lantern Festival!!!!: Yes this is the "Tangled" lantern festival! WE didn't go to a place where they sent the lanterns into the air BUT we were by a huge pond where they would send out these beautiful flower lanterns out onto the water. Seriously. It was like a dream. So many colors and SO many people. We went with the ward members who are seriously all so sweet. Seriously  cannot understand anything they say.. BUT they are so great. :)

The bus's here have wooden floors. This is an adventure for real!

Shout out to: Reagan and Serena! Happy Birthday on the 13th!! Love you both!

Tiffany. Have you had your baby yet? Do you still have Bronchitis?